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  <div class="section" id="data-compression-and-archiving">
<span id="archiving"></span><h1>Data Compression and Archiving<a class="headerlink" href="#data-compression-and-archiving" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>The modules described in this chapter support data compression with the zlib,
gzip, bzip2 and lzma algorithms, and the creation of ZIP- and tar-format
archives.  See also <a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#archiving-operations"><span class="std std-ref">Archiving operations</span></a> provided by the <a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#module-shutil" title="shutil: High-level file operations, including copying."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shutil</span></code></a>
module.</p>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="zlib.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">zlib</span></code> — Compression compatible with <strong class="program">gzip</strong></a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="gzip.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">gzip</span></code> — Support for <strong class="program">gzip</strong> files</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="gzip.html#examples-of-usage">Examples of usage</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="gzip.html#command-line-interface">Command Line Interface</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="gzip.html#command-line-options">Command line options</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="bz2.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bz2</span></code> — Support for <strong class="program">bzip2</strong> compression</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="bz2.html#de-compression-of-files">(De)compression of files</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="bz2.html#incremental-de-compression">Incremental (de)compression</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="bz2.html#one-shot-de-compression">One-shot (de)compression</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="bz2.html#examples-of-usage">Examples of usage</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="lzma.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">lzma</span></code> — Compression using the LZMA algorithm</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="lzma.html#reading-and-writing-compressed-files">Reading and writing compressed files</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="lzma.html#compressing-and-decompressing-data-in-memory">Compressing and decompressing data in memory</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="lzma.html#miscellaneous">Miscellaneous</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="lzma.html#specifying-custom-filter-chains">Specifying custom filter chains</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="lzma.html#examples">Examples</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">zipfile</span></code> — Work with ZIP archives</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#zipfile-objects">ZipFile Objects</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#path-objects">Path Objects</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#pyzipfile-objects">PyZipFile Objects</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#zipinfo-objects">ZipInfo Objects</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#command-line-interface">Command-Line Interface</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#command-line-options">Command-line options</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#decompression-pitfalls">Decompression pitfalls</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#from-file-itself">From file itself</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#file-system-limitations">File System limitations</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#resources-limitations">Resources limitations</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#interruption">Interruption</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="zipfile.html#default-behaviors-of-extraction">Default behaviors of extraction</a></li>
</ul>
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</ul>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="tarfile.html"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tarfile</span></code> — Read and write tar archive files</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tarfile.html#tarfile-objects">TarFile Objects</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tarfile.html#tarinfo-objects">TarInfo Objects</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tarfile.html#command-line-interface">Command-Line Interface</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="tarfile.html#command-line-options">Command-line options</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tarfile.html#examples">Examples</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tarfile.html#supported-tar-formats">Supported tar formats</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tarfile.html#unicode-issues">Unicode issues</a></li>
</ul>
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